A line from the statement of the Information Minister, Lai Mohammed, has been misinterpreted and misrepresented, by Vanguard and DailyPost, as a call by the Federal Government for the withdrawal of the registration certificate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
In the statement, the Minister addressed the controversies springing up with regards to the release of the Dapchi girls and rebuked those claiming that the whole Dapchi issue was stage-managed and declared that the President has warned against those exploiting the kidnap of the girls for political gains.
The Minister singled out the opposition, with particular emphasis on statements made by the PDP, as proponents of the theory that the Dapchi kidnap was staged and challenged them to provide evidence to support their claims.
Lai Mohammed also said that instead of making unfounded claims, the opposition should be happy for the return of the girls and advised that in times of national tragedies, the whole nation should unite.
His statement read in part:
“What called for non-partisan celebrations was rather thoughtlessly turned into politics, bad, despicable politics that has no place in any democracy. At times of national tragedies, countries unite. This is the norm everywhere.”
However, certain media publications have misinterpreted and misrepresented parts of the whole statement, reporting that the Federal Government, through the Information Minister, was calling for the withdrawal of the certificate of registration of the PDP.
Both Vanguard and DailyPost ran the headlines “FG calls for withdrawal of PDP’s certificate of registration” and “Why PDP’s registration should be withdrawn – Lai Mohammed” respectively and based the report on a single paragraph taken out of context.
The paragraph read:
“There should be a new criterion for withdrawing the registration of a party like the PDP which has failed both as a ruling and an opposition party! If a party cannot rule and cannot be in opposition, what else can it do?”
Understanding the FG’s Statement in context
Upon closer reading of the transcript of the entire statement, it becomes clearer that the FG did not actually make a call for the withdrawal of the registration certificate of the PDP as has been reported.
Throughout the statement, emphasis was given to opposition but PDP is mentioned obviously because of their role as a major opposition party and in response to their statements in the past. Also, the part of the statement quoted doesn’t explicitly call for the withdrawal of the PDP’s certificate of registration.
Instead, the Information Minister was calling for punitive measures to be put in place against unnecessary attacks from opposition which distract the government and the citizens and unfounded accusations without evidence.
The Minister only stated that there should be criteria or parameters put in place so that when political parties attack the government with unnecessary and unfounded accusations such as the one regarding the Dapchi girls, their registration as a political party will be withdrawn. This would deter them from spreading conspiracy theories. This is different from saying witdraw the certificate now.
None of these media publications could connect the statement to the headlines but because Nigerians are fond of reading just news headlines and not the news content, they got away with it.
Setting the record straight
It is quite difficult to determine what the motivations behind these misrepresentations are; are they politically motivated or just done in the rush to put content out.
Yet, it is important to point out that as part of the internationally recognized ethics backing journalism; research and proper presentation are considered as key elements for efficient and non-partisan reportage.
